Howdy... wondering if anyone has had any experience working with 1" Hexagon tile.

I'm installing this in our new bathroom; specifically, it's unglazed porcelain. The (current) problem I'm pondering is grouting and sealing this tile.
The books I've read show how to grout & seal and it sure looks easy... provided you use the 12" tiles. With the small, 1" hex-tile, I'm anticipating a few challenges including keeping the tile from being stained and sealing the grout adequately (all of those joints with the Hex tile seems daunting).

My plan is: pre-seal the tile (to keep the grout from sticking to the tile), then grout, then put a 2nd coat of sealer on both the grout and the tile. However, I spoke to a rep at the tile manufacturer yesterday who said there is no need to pre-seal the tile because it's porcelain. Just a gut feeling, but I'm not terribly confident in this advice.

SO, does anyone have any real-world experience with this? Am I on the right track at all?

thanks

06-20-2009, 08:54 PM

mhinesprojects

Re: 1" Hexagon tile

Hello,
I have used this same unglazed hex tile, it looks great, and it was my first tile project (I even made a mosaic pattern) I did seal it first before grouting, then again (twice) after. it did not take long and I used dark grey grout and it did not stain. Good luck!:)

07-18-2009, 09:35 AM

alexiak

Re: 1" Hexagon tile

I have a question about this that may seem a bit dumb.

When you say the tile is "unglazed" Do you mean that the edges and bottom have no coating? Or that the top of the tile has no glaze.

I am getting ready to grout and we used a 1" hex tile. The top of the tile has white ceramic glaze, but the edges and bottom are a Bisque.

Do I need to seal before I grout?

I would love an answer to this as quickly as possible.

Thank you,

Dwight

08-02-2009, 12:32 PM

keith3267

Re: 1" Hexagon tile

My first attempt at tiling a floor was with this tile. Done right, I think it is the most elegant tile you can use. My first mistake with this was mixing up too much thin-set and trying to do too large of an area at once. I could not get the edges of the mats to match up perfectly so you can see the outline of each 1x2' section of tiles. To mask this, I ended up using a white grout instead of the grey that I had planned on.

Follow your reps advice, do not seal this tile, ever. It has the highest coefficient of friction of any tile available. Sealing it will only make it slipperier unless you use a special sealer that I can't remember the name of. It does not need sealing.

I used an epoxy grout. It was my first grout experience. Everyone I talked to that does tiling told me to stay away from it, it's too hard to use, you need a lot of experience, etc. I found that it was actually pretty easy to do. It comes pre-measured in quantities just large enough to handle. On this tile, thats about 13 sq ft per batch.

The package says you have 20 min from the moment you start mixing until the first cleaning process. I fount that what ever time they claim, you better shoot for about half that. From mixing to working into the tile takes about 10 minutes, don't over mix. Have two 3 or 5 gallon buckets of water, one with a little vinegar in it, ready to go and start wiping off the tops of the tile immediately. It takes almost 2 hours per section total. I had about 90 sq. ft so it took me about two days to grout,

The nice thing about epoxy is that it doesn't need to be sealed either. I was doing a bathroom following handicapped guidelines, so the whole floor slopes to the shower drain. This works really great as water can end up anyplace on the bathroom floor, but it is still a non slip surface.

Subway tile on the wall above the hex tile really looks good too. I used a pre-mixed "stainless" grout on that, it was actually harder to do than the epoxy and it's not as "stainless" as they would have you believe.